Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) is a short- to medium height, cool-season, perennial grass that has smooth, soft, green to dark green leaves with boat-shaped tips. It grows best during cool, moist weather on well-drained, fertile soils with a pH between 6 and 7 and spreads via rhizomes to form a dense sod. Historically, Kentucky bluegrass has been important for use in agriculture in the North Central and Northeastern regions of the United States. This is because Kentucky bluegrass tolerates close and frequent grazing or mowing better than other cool-season grasses. This ability makes Kentucky bluegrass and ideal species in permanent pastures, as well as in turf situations (e.g., lawns, parks, sod production, and athletic fields).
More recently, Kentucky bluegrass has become an important turf grass in part because its rhizomes form a dense sod, which also makes it ideal for erosion control, particularly in grass waterways.
The inventor has produced a Kentucky bluegrass variety termed xe2x80x98North Starxe2x80x99 (experimental code PST-A7-60) that is different from all known varieties of Kentucky bluegrass. Particularly, PST-A7-60 has an early heading date, short mature plant height (i.e., from about 19 cm to about 36 cm), high flag leaf height (i.e., from about 6 cm to about 15 cm), and a long panicle length (i.e., from about 3 cm to about 10 cm).
At least 2500 seeds of PST-A7-60 have been deposited with the ATCC. Therefore, these seeds are known and readily available to the public.
In one embodiment, the invention provides Kentucky bluegrass plants having the morphological and physiological characteristics of PST-A7-60, as well as seeds of such plants. In another embodiment, the invention provides grass plants having the genotype of PST-A7-60. The invention also encompasses Kentucky bluegrass plants that are produced by crossing PST-A7-60 with other grass varieties, as well as seeds of such plants. In another aspect, the invention provides a method of producing grass seed, comprising planting seed from PST-A7-60 under conditions that result in the germination of the seed, growth of grass plants and setting of progeny seed, and then harvesting the progeny seed.